MEG WITH THE MUCKLE MOUTH Stu Farnham's Dee Swap 09-Aug-2004 The recipe is given in: http://www.fedflyfishers.org/FlyTying/SALFLYER/vol_3/summer/meg.htm as: MEG WITH THE MUCKLE MOUTH Taken from "The Handbook of Angling" by Ephemera Wings - from the tail of a brown turkey Head - crimson wool Body - yellow silk End of body - crimson wool Tail - yellow or orange wool Round the tail - red cock's hackle Round the body - gold twist, and over it hackle mixed with the colour as above But a comment in: http://www.fedflyfishers.org/FlyTying/SALFLYER/vol_4/summer/more.htm states "Most notably was Meg with the Muckle Mouth; the plate showed a fur-bodied fly, while his specification called for silk." Therefore, I have taken the liberty of tying it using the following recipe: MEG WITH THE MUCKLE MOUTH As tied by R. J. Brown, aka "Gumbo" Hook: Tiemco TMC 7931C #3/0 or #4/0, with the eye cut off and fitted with a substitute gut eye. Eye: 30 lb test Cortland CAM-O-FLAGE braided nylon casting line. Tail: Orange Berlin wool. Rib: Small oval copper tinsel, tied as a counter rib over the hackle. Butt: Red Berlin wool, 1/3 body length. Butt hackle: Natural reddish brown schlappen (sub for spey cock), after the manner of an Akroyd, sparsely. Body: Yellow Uni-floss, 2/3 body length. Body hackle: Natural black schlappen (sub for spey cock). Wings: Dark brown turkey tail, including the light brown tips and the metalic irridescent part near the tips, tied flat V-style, to match Meg's mouth! I used the smaller tail feathers, the ones that are about 6 inches long, as the irridescence is more pronounced. The disadvantage is you only get one fly per tail feather this way, but I liked the way it looked. Besides, I had a whole turkey's worth of feathers. The original fly no doubt just used the mottled dark brown part of the feather. Head: Red Berlin wool. NOTE: I tried this fly with gold tinsel (per the original recipe), but the contrast with the yellow floss was poor. Since I decided to "dress it up" a bit by using the irridescent part of the turkey tail feather for the wing, I thought copper tinsel might look better than the gold. So I tried it, and I liked it better that way. DIRECTIONS: ----------- PREPARE THE HOOK. Cut off the eye right at the upward bend using a heavy duty pair of wire cutters, such as electrician's pliers. ATTACH THE EYE LOOP. Choose a section of CAM-O-FLAGE line twice the hook length from the light greenish-grey color, to approximate the look of old silkworm gut. Start the thread at the front of the hook and wrap back halfway to the point, maintianing as much tension as the thread will allow. Remember, you are building a foundation to attach the eye. The eye will have to withstand the full force of the biggest fish you can imagine catching with this fly. Keep this fact in mind as you attach the eye loop. Fold the imitation gut loop eye in half and position it so the the fold is about 1/8 inch in front of the front of the hook. Now unfold it and attach the far side to the hook by wrapping threat towards the front of the hook. Form the eye loop by folding the line so that the loop extends about 1/8 inch in front of the front of the hook. Tie in the near side of the line by wrapping towards the rear of the hook. The idea here is to place one side of the line behind the loop on the far side of the hook shank, and the other side of the line on the near side, so that when viewed from the front, it looks like this: line ----> OOO <---- line ^--- hook This will create a foundation for the body of the fly that is somewhat flat in profile. This will make a good base to which to attach the flat V-wings of the Dee fly. Once you are 3/4 of the way to the hook point, stop wrapping and trim the ends of the line so that they extend about 1/4 inch behind the last thread wrap. Using the bodkin, pick apart the braid so that the line is frazzled. Trim the frazzles to taper them, so that when they are tied in, it will form a smooth tapering profile, without any distinct point where the eye material ends. This will form a smoothly tapered underbody for the butt of the fly. Tie in the frazzles. Using your favorite thin cyanoacrylate adhesive (super glue), apply the glue to the thread wraps and the eye loop material under the thread wraps. Be careful not to get glue on the actual loop eye part of the line. Using either your bodkin, or the nozzle on the glue, rub the glue into the thread wraps. You want to soak the glue into the wraps all the way to the wire of the hook. Remember how big that fish you are going to catch is! Allow the glue to dry at least 10 minutes. After the glue has dried, use a pair of smooth jawed long nose pliers to flatten and smooth the resulting underbody. Any bumps or lumps or other protrusions here will show up in the floss body of the finished fly. FORM THE TAIL Cut about a 6 inch length of small oval copper tinsel for the rib, and attach it to the rear of the hook by continuing the thread wraps back to the hook point. Cut about a 12 inch length of red berlin wool yarn for the butt and tie it into the tail so that the wool runs along the hook shank from the hook point to where the wraps securing the eye loop end where the frazzles were tied down. Cut two 3 inch lengths of orange berlin wool yarn for the tail. Fold them in half and tie them in, so that the initial wraps of thread only secure the bottom ends of the fold, then fold them down and wrap all 4 resulting tag ends back to the hook point. Trim the 4 pieces of orange yarn so that they protrude back to the hook bend. Using the bodkin, unravel the 4 yarn lengths so that the tail is a tuft of frazzled wool, without any distinct strands of yarn showing. Finish the frazzling with a small wire brush, such as a .22 caliber rifle bore cleaning brush. WRAP THE BUTT Bring the thread forward so that it is 1/3 of the distance between the point and the front of the hook. Wrap the red berlin wool yarn forward to form the butt of the body. As you wrap, untwist the yarn to make it flat, so it wraps smooth and flat. The wool yarn should have some little single hairs sticking out here and there, but you do not want to be able to see the twisted strands of the yarn. Tie down the tag end of the red yarn and trim it. WRAP THE BUTT HACKLE Select a small natural reddish brown schlappen feather to use as a hackle for the butt of the fly. The barbs should be about half the hook gap in length. Strip the right side of the hackle, so that the left side remains on the rachis. Tie the hackle in by the tip at the front of the red butt section. The idea is to have the hackle fibers be smaller at the front of the butt section, and larger towards the rear, tapering after the manner of an Akroyd. Wrap the hackle contrary to the usual direction around the butt so that the barbs slant towards the rear of the fly. When the hackle reaches the rear of the butt, secure the hackle by wrapping the small oval copper tinsel in the usual direction as a counter-rib, thus holding down the butt hackle. There should be 5 turns of the rib over the butt, starting and ending on the bottom of the body. Tie off the rib at the front of the butt with a couple of turns of thread. Do not cut the tag end of the tinsel, as it will be needed later to wrap the counter-rib over the main section of the body. Just pull the remaining tinsel towards the rear of the fly to get it out of the way while the main part of the body is being tied. Cut off the tag end of the butt hackle. WRAP THE UNDERBODY TINSEL Cut a piece of gold metalized mylar tinsel about 12 inches long. Tie this in at the rear of the body, just in front of the butt section. If your tinsel is silver on one side and gold on the other, tie it silver side up, so that when you start to wrap it, if will fold over and show the gold side. Wind the thread forward to the head of the fly. Wrap the tinsel to form a solid gold tinsel underbody. This will increase the brilliance of the yellow floss body, and prevent it from becoming dull when it is wet. Tie off the tinsel at the head of the fly and trim the tag end. WRAP THE FLOSS BODY Cut a peice of yellow floss about 24 inches long. If you are using 4-strand acetate floss, use only a single strand of it, not all 4 strands. Tie the floss in at the head of the fly. Untwist and flatten the floss, and wind it back from the head to where it meets the butt, then wind it forward again back to the head. Keep the floss flat and smooth. Tie off the floss at the head, and cut off the tag end. Burnish the floss with a smooth round tool. I use the round handle of a chrome plated crochet hook, but you may use anything suitable. A floss burnishing tool may be purchased especially for this purpose if you desire. The burnishing operation acts to smooth any unevenness in the floss and makes for a more level body. The idea is that you should not be able to see the individual turns of floss, but only a smooth even surface. WRAP THE BODY HACKLE Choose a natural black schlappen feather to use as the hackle for the main section of the body. It is especially nice if you can find one that has the reddish color just at the tips. Prepeare the hackle by stripping the left side from it. Tie it in by the root at the head of the fly. Wrap the hackle in 5 even turns around the main yellow floss section of the body of the fly. Wrap the small oval copper tinsel as a counter-rib to hold down the hackle. Tie off the tinsel at the head of the fly. Cut off the tag end of the tinsel. Cut off the tag end of the hackle. MOUNT THE WINGS Select a symetrical dark brown turkey tail feather from the smaller tail feathers. Choose one about 6 inches long from the tip to where the feather gets "furry", or maribou-like. These smaller tail feathers should have a light tan tip about 1/2 inch long, preceded by a narrow black stripe, then an irridescent greenish gold metalic region also about 1/2 long, then black, then the mottled dark brown color. Prepare the wings by cutting a V-section about 1/4 inch wide from the chosen feather. You want to choose a region of the feather that includes the tan tips, and has the dark brown mottled coloring at the base of the barbs. When mounted on the fly, the wings should form 2 sides of an equalateral triangle, with the tips of the wings extending to the hook bend. Allow an extra 3/8 inch of length to permit easier mounting; it will be trimmed after it is tied in. Choose a section with barbs no longer than necessary, as excessively long barbs will result in less stiffness of the finished wings. Seperate the 2 wings by splitting the rachis down the middle. Keeping the split part of the rachis attached to the wing strips helps to keep the barbs aligned. This will be trimmed off after the wing strip is mounted. Mount the wings by whatever technique you are most comfortable with. I like to mount the near side, then reverse the thread and mount the far side. Finally, I reverse the thread again to finish the head. Some people do not reverse the thread. Some people like to mount both wings at the same time. Some like to fasten the wings together as a subassembly, and then mount the subassembly as a unit to the fly. Some even use a reverse mounting technique. There are many ways to mount Dee wings. Consult one of the authoritive texts on the subject and then take your pick. However you do it, it takes practice! Once the wings are mounted, trim the tag ends of the wing strips. FINISH THE HEAD Cut a peice of red Berlin wool yarn about 6 inches long. Attach this to the head of the fly so that the length of yarn hangs out over the front of the fly. The thread wraps will start near the front of the head and proceed several wraps rearward, ending at the back of the head. The idea is to cover the thread of the head with the yarn. Trim the tag end of the yarn that hangs back behind the head. Wrap the yarn to cover the head with a single layer of yarn, proceeding from the front towards the rear of the head. Untwist the yarn as you wrap to produce a smooth level covering. Tie off the yarn using a whip finish at the back of the head. Cut the tag end of the thread and the yarn. Apply a small drop of thin head cement to add permanence to the whip finish. GO CATCH A FISH! This fly would typically be fished in moderate to strong flows, using the classic wet fly swing with a greased line technique. When attaching a fly with a gut eye loop (or imitation) to the tippet, a knot that forms a small open loop is preffered, as it permits greater freedom of movement of the fly. A good knot is the "non-slip loop", described on pp 53-55 of "Practical Fishing Knots" by Mark Sosin and Lefty Kreh, 1991, The Lyons Press, New York.